Prokhorov Raps

And here is Russian oligarch and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov rapping. A couple of weeks ago, Prokhorov, whom I wrote about for The New Yorker this week, appeared on “Projector Paris Hilton,” a comedy show on state television that allows itself some mild political satire. The show’s hosts handed Prokhorov a sheet of paper and asked him to rap along about his signature technology product, the ѿ-Mobile. Pronounced “yo-Mobilie,” it sounds roughly like the shorthand for Fuck Mobile to a Russian ear. It also makes for a fun, if corny, conceit for some stiff-jointed rapping.

Julia Ioffe has written about Russia for many publications, including The New Yorker, where she published a profile of Alexey Navalny.